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For many companies, an ideal world involving Search Engine Optimization would be simple, quick and a one-time task to check off a list. An organization would create a website, optimize its content for target keywords and promote the site. Soon, the website would acquire a strong number of inbound links and start ranking for those target keywords. End of story. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. In reality, SEO isn’t just about adding keywords and linking. SEO is increasingly social and sits at the intersection of multiple business functions outside of marketing including public relations, customer service, recuitment and branding. Ongoing SEO consulting is an important part of any internet marketing mix. Truly good consultants save companies significant expenses and contribute to increased leads and sales by providing unique expertise and insight into the technical, creative and increasingly social sides of internet marketing. Back in 2007, Lee pinpointed 5 Advantages of Ongoing SEO Consulting . As we near the start of 2010, I think it’s the perfect time to revisit those points to see if they hold just as much weight today as they did 3 years ago: 1. Ongoing search marketing consulting is important because a large percentage of organizations fail to implement the recommendations provided to them by their SEO consultants. There are many reasons companies do not implement the advice they’re paying for. In difficult economic times, some companies aren’t able to justify the expense of making major changes to their content management systems or devote significant resources to content creation. Many web development or copy writing staff are overbooked and SEO implementation requests never make it to the “done” checklist. The best optimization recommendations in the world can be given, but if they aren’t implemented properly or at all, then they’re useless. An experienced search marketing consultant can lend a hand in implementing recommendations at once, in phases over time or provide quality control oversight of client side implementation on an ongoing basis. Ongoing SEO helps companies avoid costly mistakes in situation such as when SEO work is overwritten or implemented in a way that actually hurts search engine spider interaction rather than facilitate it. For one B2B e-commerce site that TopRank has worked with for several years, SEO oversight over time has been instrumental at achieving compounded search traffic. Because the company’s web site encompasses a vast number of product pages – and because product focuses change over time – ongoing attention to keyword glossaries, on page optimization, anchor text and link sources has been vital. In order to maintain search momentum and integrity to target keywords and audiences, the SEO team revisits optimized content to ensure keywords are still relevant and that pages retain their ability to pull search traffic. The end result has been a significant increase in relevant search traffic over time, despite changes in keywords and target audiences. Google organic search referrals saw a year-over-year increase of 6.7% from September 2008 to September 2009. 2. Search marketing consultants can help organizations proactively build links over time. Link building continues to be one of the most common victims of a neglected search marketing program. Yet ongoing link building is still one of the most critical factors in determining page relevancy, crawling and rankings. From content marketing on social networks to optimized press releases to link bait, search marketing consultants can help organizations acquire links that drive traffic directly and influence better search visibility, which also drives traffic. SEO Consultants can even assist in more passive link building efforts such as directory submissions, bookmarking, widgets and operationalizing the link opportunities that exist with other types of online content such as job listings, events and public relations efforts. For one retail SEO client, TopRank has provided ongoing search marketing consulting – ongoing link building, in particular – that has resulted in over 80% of all web site traffic coming from natural search. On any given month, the site receives anywhere from a handful to several hundreds of new inbound links from relevant sources. Since an ongoing effort to acquire links was started, the website and blog have increased unique visitors by 214%. 3. Ongoing search marketing consulting is necessary because the search engine industry changes often. This point may be more relevant today than ever before. The major search engines are constantly fine-tuning and the search engine landscape continues to change. Bing didn’t exist 3 years ago and who could have imagined that Yahoo and Microsoft would actually be working together let alone Google achieving 70% market share ? As an example, in just a little more than a year, Google has completely revamped the way it crawls and indexes Adobe Flash files. Before summer 2008, it was virtually impossible for a Flash-based website to gain search engine rankings. Today, many of the rules for optimizing on-page text can apply to text in Flash files. More importantly are the impact of personalized search for everyone, the influence of social media and real-time search. The implications for SEO with these recent developments are profound and consultants that are on top of such changes provide invaluable advice to their clients, saving time, money and increasing competitive advantage. Keeping up with the changes can put a strain on companies’ IT and marketing departments. In a win-win scenario for the client, search marketing consultants stay on top of these constant changes and consult on the implications for individual client online marketing efforts. Not only will the client’s site continue to reap the benefits of SEO, but as Lee noted in his post, he or she can “look like a rock star to their management team.” 4. Companies have thinly spread employees; ongoing search marketing consulting acts as “more hands on deck”. Now, more than ever before, employees are wearing multiple hats within their organizations. A company’s web development staff, copywriters or other marketing personnel might be tasked with SEO in addition to all of their other responsibilities. Compounding the issue, the person responsible for ongoing SEO might not even have previous experience in search marketing. Having a search marketing consultant on board gives the people tasked with SEO with useful resource so they can focus more attention on core responsibilities. For example, TopRank acts as a partner with a B2B distributor of industrial products for all of their online marketing activities, including content optimization, blogging and PPC management. With a capable internet marketing team as a resource, the client is able to focus its in-house employees on making sales. As a result of their top 10 rankings on important keyword phrases increasing by 125% since the beginning of the year, search traffic has also improved significantly. More qualified traffic = more qualified prospects for this B2B company. 5. Many companies don’t actively or effectively use analytics on their own. From measuring SEO performance to mining new keyword opportunities, Analytics are as important as ever. This is especially true as organizations are increasingly demanding proof that their marketing budgets are being put to good use. Marketers must definitively prove marketing ROI and tie efforts back to corporate goals. Concerns about effectively measuring web site ROI have given way to questions about measuring social media ROI. Qualified SEO consultants have the necessary experience in monitoring keyword traffic, referral trends, time spent on sites, visitor interaction, social media conversations and other vital metrics to enable companies to make smarter decisions about what’s working and what’s not. The increasingly social and real-time nature of search brings new opportunities for on-demand SEO tactics that would be lost without proper analytics oversight. Web analytics are certainly more present in most company online marketing programs with the introduction and acceptance of Google Analytics, but even there, constant innovation on the part of Google creates competitive advantages for those companies that stay current. SEO consultants providing ongoing web and social media analytics insight can reveal long term trends, cyclicality and the effect of the many changes mentioned above to an organization’s ability to attract new business and manage it’s reputation online. Conclusion: Organizations that invest in ongoing search marketing consulting are putting themselves a giant step ahead of the competition by allowing the company to focus on its core skills and relying on the SEO agency either completely, strategically or to fill in where needed. Do what you do best and outsource the rest. Companies that hire and manage in-house SEO teams continue to leverage the expertise and strategic advice of competent SEO agencies to provide insight that proves highly valuable in staying competitive, reducing online marketing costs and increasing bottom line sales. What are your thoughts on the value provided from ongoing SEO consulting? Do you think SEO can be handled in-house all the time, some of the time or never? If you’re a company considering SEO, what are some of your major concerns with outsourcing on an ongoing basis?
Here we are near the end of 2009 and at the last Search Engine Strategies conference of the year. While many conferences are down in attendance, SES Chicago actually beat last year’s numbers by about 100, according to Matt McGowan, VP, Publisher & Head of US at Incisive Media, the company that owns SES. There are many ways to get value from attending a conference but one that is especially important, and often overlooked, is the ability to connect with industry thought leaders and ask important questions. While roaming the sessions, exhibit hall and networking events at SES Chicago, I did just that and decided to use my trusty iPhone 3GS to capture some insights on what marketers should be focusing on or considering in 2010. Clearly, iPhone videos should be taken in bright light and close quarters, but these didn’t turn out too bad and they include great tips ranging from online reputation management to measuring social media ROI to the importance of testing what’s new but mastering the basics: First up is Muhammad Saleem , a social media maven that works with the Chicago Tribune. He’s successfully built a tremendous social media profile as a “power user” on many difference services. Muhammad and I talked about what social media marketers should focus on for 2o10: Click here to view the embedded video. The rate at which social media and search intersect is mind boggling with the deals struck between Google and Twitter, Bing and Twitter, Bing and Facebook, Google and MySpace, etc. I talked with digital marketing guru Aaron Goldman of Connectual about his take on the future of search and social: Click here to view the embedded video. Another dimension that marketers need to focus on is the rapidly changing nature of digital content distribution channels and how to optimize for them. Best selling author, keynote speaker and conversion expert Bryan Eisenberg and I talked about these challenges and how to manage chasing “shiny objects” vs testing what’s new and the importance of mastering the basics. The social web makes a lot of information about individuals and companies transparent, whether we like it or not. Online Reputation Management is increasingly important as service providers find new ways to help consumers discover, consume and share information online. The author of “the book on ORM – Radically Transparent” and founder of the social media monitoring service Trackur, Andy Beal and I talked in his Penthouse suite at the Hilton (actually it was Matt McGowan’s) on the importance and challenges of ORM in an increasingly social web. Click here to view the embedded video. The sheer volume of information about how to best market online is staggering. Staying current is key and without a foundation of knowledge to build upon, new insights can be fragmented and strategies incomplete. Aaron Kahlow, fouder of Online Marketing Connect and the Online Marketing Institute talks about the importance of training and mastering the basics of internet marketing. Click here to view the embedded video. For more internet marketing interviews from SES Chicago and many other events, be sure to check out TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog video channel on YouTube. What tips or questions do you have about online marketing for the coming year? What digital marketing tactics and strategies will you be focusing on?
Our Director of Internet Marketing Greg Finn knocked another Search Engine Land article out of the park today. Titled 12 Social Media New Year's Resolutions for 2010, the piece focuses on twelve things Greg would like to see social ...
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Internet marketing is such a big term and there are actually many aspects under it. One thing is for sure, the goal of any online marketing strategy is to boost the traffic to your site. And one of the most prominent features under Web marketing is search engine optimization or SEO for short. Through SEO, [...]
What exactly is social media marketing? ” SMM combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as Digg, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and many.
